Last night was not a very easy night for Woodcock catching with strong and very gusty winds making even walking in a straight line difficult. This combined with over grazed and very soggy and slippery ground saw myself and my helper flat on our backs on a couple of occasions. However fortune favours the brave and the 3rd Woodcock of the night had a reward for our efforts with a geo-locator recovery.
This bird, EY08315, was tagged on 5/3/13 and was sitting close to where it was first caught. I wasn't too optimistic about catching it as it was sat smiling at me in the middle of a very wet and cattle poached ground. A slow and steady approach paid off and it was only as I removed it from the net that I realised that this bird was carrying a tag.
This is my 4th geo-locator recovery having fitted 34 on my main site over the past few years. It seems that there are now more adults around since the weather got colder on the continent, and as I have a high retrap rate on my ringing site I have my fingers crossed for more before they start their spring migration in early March.
I now have the map of the migration track of an earlier recovery EX28930 which was fitted in Nov 2010 which shows that it bred in Sweden and returned to Wales the following winter.
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